Ken's Reflection
by Sylvyr Elf
Summary: This is just a short thing where Ken thinks about how he met Davis. Mention of Kenyako. Rated pg for mention of suicide.


Ok, I wrote this for a writing contest at school. It wasn't a digimon contest; my characters just wound up being the Digimon characters. Anyway I thought maybe someone else might enjoy it so...here it is.

Ken's Reflections

Ken looked in the mirror, his soft black hair hung across his face hiding his deep blue eyes. _Freedom is always difficult to come by._ He reflected, studying his face,_ I have spent so much time trying to run away from myself. Maybe I can finally be free of this cage I have locked myself into. I finally allowed someone to get close to me. Maybe now this nightmare can end. Today is the day…maybe now I can stop torturing myself._

The telephone rang, he checked the caller ID. _Davis._ He smiled at the thought of his energetic friend; nothing ever got him down. Even when his girlfriend broke up with him a month earlier Davis had not been depressed, he was so unlike anyone Ken knew.

"Hello, Davis, what's up?"

"Hey Ken. Listen I've got a date tonight and I wondered if you and Miya wanted to double date with us."

"Sorry Davis, Miya is out of town on a ski trip. I'm glad you got a date though, who is it?"

" A friend of my cousin's, her name is Rose. It's kind of a blind date kind of thing…don't you dare say anything Ken, you're supposed to be my best friend."

Ken laughed merrily. Davis knew that Ken would use any opportunity available to poke fun at him. They both enjoyed playing a constant game of verbal jabbing, but it was all in fun. Both knew when it was time to quit.

"Hmm, well if you are looking for someone to go out with you so you won't feel totally alone you might try asking Tai and June to go with you."

"Ask my sister, yeah right."

"You know Davis, it might make your date feel uncomfortable if you showed up with a bunch of your friends with you. Here she would be, in a group of strangers, not really knowing anyone. And no offense Davis, but you would probably forget to try and make her feel like she was part of the group."

"Oh yeah, I didn't think of that. You're right Ken, thanks."

"No problem Davis. I have to go study for Trig'. Call me after your date and let me know how it went."

"OK, see ya 'round, Ken."

"See you later Davis."

They hung up, Ken looked at the phone thoughtfully, _How did I ever wind up being best friends with a guy like him._

Davis and Ken were as different as night and day. 

Ken was quiet, thoughtful, and reserved. He spent most of his time studying. In fact, if Davis had not set him up with Miya, Ken probably never would have considered having a girlfriend. Ken could do anything with a computer, from building them to programming them. Lot's of people thought he was a genius, but he was not. Not really anyway.

Davis, on the other hand was loud, spoke without ever thinking, and was extremely outgoing. He coasted by in school with mostly C's and D's. Occasionally he made a low B. He was friends with just about every person he knew, and loved to set his friends up with each other. He was the star soccer player for Odaiba High. Many people thought that he was an airhead, but once Ken got to know him, he discovered that Davis was intelligent, but his spontaneous nature often caused him to act without considering the consequences. On rare occasions he could be serious, but more often he managed to drag Ken along on some crazy scheme of his. 

Ken thought back to the time they had met, Davis had pulled some crazy stunt and fallen off a set of bleachers somewhere. He was in the hospital with a concussion; his doctor had decided it was necessary to keep him over night to make sure he was all right. Ken was in the hospital for a different reason, they had been put in the same room.

Ken had been staring up at the ceiling when they wheeled Davis' bed into the room. So far, he had counted two hundred little dots on the ceiling, but the nurses had made him lose count. He started over.

Davis chattered at the nurses the entire time they were explaining to him how to work the call button and the TV remote. 

One of the nurses walked over to Ken's bed, "Ken, how are you doing?"

Ken did not respond, he never did. Not since they had brought him here. He did not talk to anyone, not even his parents. He hated all their questions. They all wanted to know why. It should have been obvious.

The nurse left, eventually they always did. All the nurses left the room, leaving Ken and his roommate alone. He did not turn to look at the other boy, who was sitting up as far as he could make the bed go.

"Hey, Dude, do you care if I watch TV."

Ken ignored him.

"Dude, I'm talking to you."

__

Don't say anything, eventually he'll give up and leave me alone.

"Weird kid." Davis turned on the TV, he was watching some dumb show; Ken did not really pay attention to what it was.

A couple of hours passed, and the nurses brought them dinner. They sat Ken's bed up and tried to get him to eat, but he did not touch any of it. He would not even drink. Eventually they left.

"Dude, there is like, something seriously wrong with you."

__

Duh, that's obvious.

Time slipped by in the way it does in a hospital, it is never really night or day there, just different shifts, different people coming and going. It must have been nearly midnight though when Davis tried to get Ken to talk to him again.

"Hey man, why are you in here?"

__

I'm crazy, isn't that obvious?

"I mean besides the fact that your crazy. They don't keep crazy people in the hospital, they keep them in the loony bin."

Ken remained silent.

"Well I'm here because I fell off some bleachers. I was…um…fighting an evil ninja, yeah that's it. There was this evil ninja up there and he was trying to take over the school. So I went up there and kicked his butt. And then just when I had him beat, he…uh…threw a banana peel under my feet and I slipped and fell, but I wasn't beat yet. I got back up and climbed up the bleachers and…"

Davis talked nonstop for almost half an hour, telling Ken some ridiculous story. It was beginning to get on Ken's nerves. _If I tell him why I'm here will he just shut up?!?_

"I tried to commit suicide." It was the first time Ken had spoken in almost two weeks, the sound of his own voice sounded alien in his ears.

"Dude!" Davis was silent for several minutes, Ken was beginning to think he would leave him alone when he spoke again, "Why?"

__

I am really begininning to hate that question.

"Because I did. Would you leave me alone."

"No way Dude, you need to seriously lighten up."

"My name is Ken, not Dude, and I am just fine the way I am."

"No you're not. You tried to kill yourself. Nobody who is just fine the way he is would try to do that."

__

Amazing, this kid is actually making some sense.

"You definitely have a serious problem, you should try talking about it. They say it helps."

"Who says." _Someone please tell me why I am bothering to even talk to this kid._

"Doctors and stuff…" Ken gave him a dark look, "…in the movies."

Under other circumstances Ken might have laughed at the ridiculous answer.

__

Why did I do this. I just didn't feel like living anymore. It was mostly because of Sam though.

Sam, his brilliant older brother. The apple of his parents eyes.

"I guess it was because of Sam."

"Who is Sam?"

"He was my older brother, I hated him because he was smarter, Mom and Dad always paid more attention to him."

"What happened?"

"We were outside playing and I was being a real pest. I kept bugging him and I guess he decided he was going to go to the park across the street to get away from me. He ran away and dashed across the street leaving me behind. He knew I couldn't cross the street without him. He didn't look both ways though and a car was coming. The driver said he never even saw Sam. He was in the hospital for almost a two months, but…" Ken's voice trailed off.

"He died?" whispered Davis.

"No, but his brain was severely damaged. He's in a special hospital in America, a doctor over there thinks he might be able to help him."

"Oh, I guess you must feel pretty guilty, huh."

"Yeah." For the first time in months Ken felt like crying. He could not remember telling anyone about this, not since the accident. The room was filled with silence for several minutes.

"Hey Ken, it wasn't your fault. Your brother made his own choice. It's not like you pushed him into the street or anything."

"But I hated him Davis. I wished for him to go away so my parents would notice me too. I got my wish." Tears streamed unnoticed down Ken's face.

"Everybody has moments when they say things they don't really mean. Like that story I told about the ninja, it was totally bogus. Nobody believed me when I told them that story, and I don't believe you. You didn't really want Sam to go away, did you? It was just something you thought because you were angry and hurt. It wasn't your fault. You can't control the things that happen around you, you can only change yourself."

Ken rolled over to face Davis. 

"Thanks," he said, smiling behind the tears.

The next morning Ken had surprised the nurses by eating his breakfast, he even answered a few simple questions, though his replies were only 'yes' or 'no'. Davis was released late that afternoon, Ken figured he would never see him again, but he was grateful for his listening ear. Ken was released a week later, the doctors could not figure out what had made him suddenly take an interest in life.

Much to Ken's surprise, a week after he got out of the hospital his mother walked into his room and told him he had a visitor. He went to the door to see who it was, he did not exactly have any friends who were waiting anxiously for him to get out of the hospital.

He looked at the boy standing on the doorstep. "Davis," he asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you Dude."

"I didn't tell you my last name, how did you find me?"

"A friend of mine works at the hospital, I blackmailed him into finding out for me. Man your house is a long way from mine, I had to take the bus to get here."

A rare smile crossed Ken's face. "It's a big city, the chances of us living near each other are about one in a thousand," he replied softly.

He led Davis down the hall to his room. Davis looked around the sparsely furnished room and let out a whistle. "Dude, this room looks like a ghost lives in it. You definitely need to get some interests."

It had been the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Ken sat out on the balcony of his apartment reflecting on their friendship. Sometimes Ken still felt guilty about what happened to Sam, but Davis was right, Ken had no control over that incident. 

__

I wonder why I didn't tell him the whole truth. Even if Miya had been in town I'm busy tonight. I know he is there for me if I need him, and I probably will, but for this first time, this first meeting, I want to do this alone. He walked back into his room glancing at the calendar. Today's date was circled in red.

He heard a key in the door; his parents were back from the airport. He walked out to greet them, his eyes turning to the boy walking behind them. He smiled as he looked into the sparkling blue eyes that matched his own. The doctors said he would probably never be the same as he was before, but he could finally come home.

"Hello Sam. How are you?" 

Ken was suddenly nervous, what if Sam hated him for what had happened? 

Sam seemed to notice his aprehension because he walked over to him and wrapped him in a big hug.

"Hello, Ken. It's good to be home."


End file.
